The present invention relates generally to techniques for managing storage resources, and in particular to techniques for providing high performance storage access environment for the mobile users within a wide area.
The information technology revolution brings with it an ever increasing need for more storage capacity for business enterprises. It is expected that the average Fortune 1000 company's storage requirement will more than double in the coming years. In addition, growth has brought shortages of skilled persons in the information technology field. These challenges confront many companies facing the need to expand and improve their information technology assets. Increasingly, companies are turning to network based storage systems as a method of coping with the need to grow capacity in view of rapidly increasing demand. Further, with the introduction of wide area networks, storage systems have become able to span larger geographic distances than ever before.
While certain advantages to conventional technologies are perceived, opportunities for further improvement exist. For example, there are a lot of users who move around a wide area. However, conventional network based storage solutions do not readily adapt to the users that can change position in an area as large as Seattle to San Francisco, for example. Further, the managing of storage resources is often an on-going task that is conventionally performed by a host computer that uses the storage resources. In other words, using conventional approaches, the storage systems are largely confined to a local area.
What is needed are improved techniques for managing storage resources over a widely dispersed geographic area.